Ex Sues Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga has enjoyed many fruits of superstardom--being claimed as a political icon and implicated in a mind-bending conspiracy theory, among other things. This
week, Gaga takes on one of the more ambivalent trappings of a true celebrity fixture: her first lawsuit.

The
Wall Street Journal's Christopher John Farley
reports that producer and songwriter Rob Fusari--co-author of Gaga
hits ‘Paparazzi’, ‘Beautiful, Dirty, Rich’, ‘Brown Eyes’ and ‘Disco
Heaven’--filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against two companies co-owned by singer-songwriter Lady
Gaga, Team Love Child LLC and Mermaid Music LLC. According to Farley,
the suit seeks to cast Fusari as "instrumental in the singer’s success"
and Gaga as negligent in her contractual and fiduciary obligations. This
is no ordinary lawsuit: Fusari claims that he had a "romantic
relationship" with the singer and is responsible for Lady Gaga’s stage name. Fusari is asking for damages of at least $5
million:

The suits starts with a quote from “The Mourning Bride”
by William Congreve: “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor
hell a fury like a woman scorned.” The suit goes on to say “All
business is personal. When those personal relationships evolve into
romantic entanglements, any corresponding business relationship usually
follows the same trajectory so that when one crashes they all burn. That
is what happened here.

The self-consciously dramatic spat promises to dominate
entertainment news. For her part, Gaga's claim to her brand precedes contractual agreements, according to Billboard.com:

"I was Gaga from the
time that I was 19 through my first record deal," the 23-year-old said
of her over-the-top, avant-garde style, which has captured the
imaginations of millions of fans. "I always dressed like that before
people knew me as Lady Gaga. I was always that way ... I stuck out like a
sore thumb."